Analysis of Cat's Cradle
Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle, one of the century's greatest anthropological works, deals with religion, science, and the end of the world; its major theme involves the symbolic nature of the title of the book. The theme of the cat's cradle is used throughout the book to represent many of the truths, as viewed by Vonnegut, that are found in society. A cat's cradle is essentially a game played by all ages and almost all nationalities; "Even the Eskimos know it"(Cat's Cradle 114). It is a game using an endless string, a loop, six feet in circumference, which is wound, looped, or strung between the hands of the players. It symbolically and historically is used to represent many things, like stories, or figures like the one figure which is its name sake, the cat's cradle. In actuality it is still, according to Vonnegut, "nothing but a bunch of X's between somebody's hands." (C.C. 114) This in turn gives Vonnegut's definition for many of Man's creations in the world. One of Kurt Vonnegut's major areas of examination or ridicule in Cat's Cradle is the world's religions. To elaborate on the point of religion, Vonnegut invents his own religion, Bokonism, in which the first essential rule is, according to Bok
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Cat's Cradle, Vonnegut Ice-9, Newt Hoenikker, San Larenzo, Felix Hoenikker, Manhattan Project, Rube Goldberg, John Simons, Larenzo Papa, John/Jonah John, cat's cradle, religion people, x's somebody's hands, society cat's cradle, cradle actuality, somebody's hands, x's somebody's, bunch x's, science game, vonnegut suggests, cat's cradle actuality, bunch x's somebody's, society cat's, cc 114,
Approximate Word count = 1384
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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